Well the last two weekends I’ve been back going away climbing again. The weekend before last, after quite a bit of procrastinating trying to decide whether I could take two days off, I decided to join Rob and Seth on a trip to Minnesota. They’d done a trip to South Dakota while I was at my conference and while there had met some people from Minnesota who invited them climbing and I tagged along on their trip. Thursday evening saw us doing the long drive to the St Paul area where we slept in the nice people from Minnesota garden.
Next day, after a bit of a slow start and after having been provided with breakfast we headed off to Taylor’s Falls. The river which forms the falls is the border between Minnesota and Wisconsin and we ended up climbing on the Wisconsin side. In this part of the world top-roping is the prevailing ethic, although some routes are leadable. We had an enjoyable time top-roping four routes which included, in my case, a fall on a 5.5 after I got off route and traversed across too early and found climbing that was definitely not 5.5. After climbing we headed back Steve and Grant’s (Steve’s son) house where Steve’s wife provided us with dinner – all rather civilised!
Saturday morning saw us driving up to the north shore of Lake Superior and the crag where Mary Ashley and I ended up not climbing after my car started dying on me. Again we top-roped but I only got one route done. Being lake cliffs – to all extents and purposes sea cliffs given the size of the lake – it was a case of abseiling or being lowered in and then climbing out. I’d had a bit of a head ache all day but thought I’d be OK. Turns out that exertion made me headache much worse and on the one climb I did I was reduced to doing a couple of moves then sitting on the rope waiting for the head ache to get better again. Eventually I made it to the top where after a bit of a rest I spent the rest of the day taking photos. Russell, his wife and his mum, who’s visiting from Australia, joined us that evening at the campsite where we were rather lucky to get the last site.
Sunday saw us heading back to Palisade head. I still wasn’t feeling great but managed a couple of climbs, a 5.7 clean and a 5.10b with some faffing. Seth and Rob did some horrible off width but by that time I’d decided that I probably couldn’t manage another climb anyway so once again took photos. It was a bit disappointing to not be feeling that great but the location was really nice – reminding me that I miss sea cliffs – and I still had a really enjoyable day. The day was made all the more enjoyable by a visit at the end of the day to a water hole with a cool water fall. We had planned to cook dinner while we were there but a passing thunderstorm put pay to that idea. Thankfully it passed really quickly and by the time we were back at camp it was already gone.
Monday morning saw us heading back towards Kansas City via a stop for breakfast and then a quick look round the harbour at Two Harbours which gave me more photo opportunities. Somehow, between the swimming hole and Two Harbours, I’d managed to see two places I’d not seen with Mary Ashley which was a rather unexpected bonus. On the way back we stopped in Ames, Iowa for dinner at a Brazilian bar where Rob worked while at university. The food was good but Rob didn’t really do a good job of selling Ames while we were there. Although in his defence it’s not an easy place to sell to climbers! Photos from the trip are here – a few are by Rob.
This weekend just gone saw me, eventually, heading to HCR with Mary Ashley and a couple of others. There had been quite a lot of discussion about whether we should go given the heat but in the end we decided to go. For various reasons we ended up getting in about 1.30am on Friday which led to a late start on Saturday. This in turn led to rather more climbing in the heat of the day then we’d have liked. Still I managed three routes before we gave up for the day and headed to Steel Creek for some swimming.
Sunday morning saw us up rather earlier and I managed to get six routes down before we called it a day. I was the only one psyched to stay to Monday – it’s a three day weekend (Labor Day) here so after a bit of relaxing we headed back to Kansas City. Over the whole weekend I didn’t get on anything too hard but was pleased with how easy I found some of the easier routes I did – hopefully this isn’t just because of the soft grading at HCR. Was also please to get an overhanging, powerful 10a as it was so not my style. OK it was a dogged lead but that’s still a significant improvement over my last attempt when I couldn’t get it on top rope. While relaxing on the Sunday I got my camera out and took some photos which can be found here although none of them are of actual climbing.
Also of note over the last few weeks is that I seem to have had some success job hunting. It appears that, unless my references turn out terrible, that I have a job in Nova Scotia, Canada if I want it. The job sounds cool, the boss seemed cool on the phone but the one possible downside is it’s in the middle of nowhere. Although it’s a university job it’s off campus in a town of about 6,000 people and about an hour away from both the main university and Halifax, the nearest big city. I’m a little nervous about that idea but I’m going to visit next weekend which should give me a better idea of whether I’d like it there. I’m also still waiting to hear back from a job I’ve applied for in Southampton.
I think I’m finally up to date and I can’t think of anything else to write. I’ll try and update this more quickly next time – especially as I will hopefully have some job news.